Bello says coronavirus is a hoax

The worst yet to come, WHO warns

The Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has said the fear of coronavirus kills faster than the virus itself.

He said the virus was “imported” and “forced on people” to shorten their lives.

Bello disagreed with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) over the death of the state Chief Judge, Justice Nasir Ajanah, who died on Sunday at the Gwagwalada COVID-19 Isolation Centre.

The governor had accused the NCDC of making up numbers when according to him, the virus was non-existent in the state. At a prayer organized for the late chief judge, Bello called on the people of the state not to be afraid.

He described the coronavirus as worse than banditry, insurgency and genocide, adding that it was artificial, but unfortunately sold to Nigerians.

According to him, Justice Ajanah died naturally, adding that his death should not be attributed to anything else as is “being insinuated by certain persons for political and mischief purposes. Do not give in to fear and evil of the issues of COVID-19. It is a disease that has been imported, propagated and forced on the people for no just cause.

“Nothing kills faster than fear. I urge you all not to accept cut and paste as COVID-19. It is only out to create fear, panic and pandemic, orchestrated to reduce and shorten the lifespan of the people.

“Whether medical experts and scientists believe it or not, COVID-19 is out to shorten the lifespans of the people. It is a disease propagated by force for Nigerians to accept.”

He eulogized the jurist and described him as a lover of peace.

The governor’s dismissal of the presence of covid-19 in the state is coming against the fact that two prominent people in the state whose death have been recorded recently is linked to the virus.

Meanwhile, the virus has killed 510,909 people worldwide as of Tuesday.

The Commissioner for Health Saka Audu recently reiterated the governor’s stance that “Kogi State till this very moment is COVID-19 free. We have developed the full testing capacity and have conducted hundreds of tests so far which have returned negative.”

However, the director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) head, Tedros Ghebreyesus, has said the worst is yet to come, noting that the virus would infect many more people if governments did not start to implement the right policies.

He told a virtual briefing monitored by the BBC that “Six months ago, none of us could have imagined how our world – and our lives – would be thrown into turmoil by this new virus.

“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.

“We will need even greater stores of resilience, patience, humility and generosity in the months ahead. We have already lost so much — but we cannot lose hope.”